Following Edge

This is my dad at a place called Dinners Done Right. He cooks 12 dinners in 2 hours and takes them home to keep them in a freezer in our back yard. Then, we eat them. I like the bread sticks. They are my favorite food. Dad likes that a whole meal for the family costs only about $12 and takes only 15 minutes to cook at home. I'm always happy when my dad says we're going to eat one of the 12 dinners.

These are me and my dad's set up toys. The one with 3 people dancing under a flag is mine. The one that's sitting down behind a desk is my dad's. We used the ello construction set to build them. My favorite part was the fun building them. My dad likes the crazy way the characters look. Mother likes that they are bright and colorful. It took a short while to build them. We showed them in our kitchen for weeks.

This is me at the train station with my school friends, because we were going to ride the train to Salem to see the state capitol. When I went to Salem, I saw the gold man on top of the tower. During the ride home, we got to stop and play frisbee because my dad's car broke down.

As uncertain as I have been about writing here, I should get around to documenting that I have been learning Tae Kwon Do for 2 months before I document my success or failure at testing for a yellow belt tomorrow.

Anne Marie and I had decided that we'd like Lauren to be involved in martial arts training, so that she could have a "leg up" in self-defense and general confidence. I also think that martial arts are a good match for her weekly ballet classes, as both are really about training your body and developing a skill that works your mind and body together.

Anyhow, as you can see in this picture, my mother and I both decided to also sign up as well. All three of us have been taking classes (aka "working out") at the US Tae Kwon Do College that is adjacent to my office building in Eugene. After almost exactly two months, all three of us are ready to take the test tomorrow that may earn us our yellow belts. (Currently, we have white belts, which anyone can get by just showing up.)

The tests require Lauren to know the "5 tenets of Kae Kwon Do" (courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, and indominable spirit), two kicking combinations, two self-defense maneuvers, and "hello", "goodbye" and the numbers 1 to 10 in Korean. Us adults also need to know "poomse taekwondo" and two one-step sparring maneuvers. I think we are all ready for the test, despite (or because of) some serious catch-up work this week.

We have all really been enjoying our Tae Kwon Do work. We always feel much better physically and mentally after each session. What could be better? Well, the best part is the owner of the school, Grand Master Lee, and the many wonderful members of the Do-Jang who selflessly help one another. I will write more about the wonderful community at the school... especially if i pass tomorrow's test.

We're coming into the home stretch of our Hawaii vacation and will be heading back to Portland in less than 2 days. Since my last report, we've spent quite a bit more time in Honolulu, which continues to irritate me with incredibly bad traffic... and on a trip around Oahu's North Shore, which has course sandy beaches, wind and rough waves exactly as reported by many sources.

All of that "looking around" only makes me appreciate my choice of Kailua for our home base here in Hawaii. As I may have pointed out earlier, the beach is really excellent, with gentle waves, fine sand, and no crowds as you find at the fine beaches in Waikiki. The town is big enough to have ample shopping and services and is only about 20 minutes drive from downtown Honolulu. If you're considering a stay on Oahu, I'd recommend checking it out.

The first picture above is from this morning's visit to Kailua Beach. Lauren found some other children to play with and managed to only get into one parent-child argument. I spend most of my time during our daily trips to the beach with my beach chair just feet from the surf so that the waves can occasionally come up to swirl around my chair and my feet. Nice.

The second picture is of Lauren and Wally Amos, a "famous" resident of Kailua. Wally these days (in addition to promoting his 13 books, his muffin company, speaking engagements, and more) spends a lot of time in his "Chip and Cookie" store in Kailua, which sells his most excellent cookies and which promotes literacy and parent-child reading. This Saturday, as every Saturday, Wally read a number of books and shared cookies with a crowd of children. He's really a wonderful reader, as well as a good self-promoter. It was really a joy to meet him.
I should tell more about our visits to the Polynesian Cultural Center, the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, the Waikiki Aquarium, and other touristy spots around Oahu, but all the sightseeing, and my little bit of computer time, barely gives me the necessary time for lying around.

Lots of love from Hawaii!

We did arrive in Honolulu from Portland on Wednesday. That was quite a day! Going from a campground in Oregon before 6am, enduring the now-totally-ridiculous airport screening, and lasting through a 6 hour flight was not enough. According to Anne Marie, the Honolulu Airport is exactly the same as it was on her last visit in the 1980s. I can believe it based on needing to take a run-down shuttle bus from the terminal to the baggage claim, then finding that there was an incredible crown, as two flights baggage were arriving on the same turnstile at the same time. Then a long line waiting for a rental car. Ayee! By the time we reached our cottage, it was bedtime (or 2 hours after bedtime based on where we had awoken).

Happily, yesterday I taught myself the Hawaiian phrase "A'one he pilikia", which I think should translate to "There's no problem". This is much the feeling you should have in Hawaii. I've noticed that everything here is very casual and even what I might call run-down if I was back home. But, anytime one might notice something that's falling apart, or that's a little too casual, one only needs to remember that it's that way because there's no problem. If there was a problem, someone would have fixed it. You may think I'm complaining here, but it's really liberating to be in a place where you can remember that everything doesn't need to be perfect... only the things you care about!

While we haven't yet seen much of the hosts at our rental cottage, we did get to see their cockatoo, who climbed the fence and started courting Anne Marie from the branches on our lana'i. Anne Marie invited the bird into our cottage twice. It turned out nicely as it is very friendly and Anne Marie, a bird lover, gets to have her "bird fix".

We drove the slow way into Honolulu today and visited the Honolulu Zoo. Got to see lots more birds there... as well as every other kind of animal... a nice zoo. We also walked across the street to visit the Waikiki beach, which is famous, but too crowded and unimpressive to make me interested in it, compared to Kailua Beach, which is just a block from our cottage, and supposed to be the best beach in Hawaii.

Lauren is having a fine time. We've gone to the beach both mornings we've been here so far, and that's the main thing for her. Of course, shopping and sightseeing are near the top of her list also... so, everything is going well for her.

Much more to tell, but technology is failing me... my camera is working only about 1 out of 10 times and, so far, I only have very slow Internet access. Hopefully, that will all work out. If not, I can always just enjoy paradise...  A'one he pilikia!

We just arrived back home from Bend on Wednesday following our trip to retrieve our new camper last weekend. Now, less than a week later, we're away from home again near Portland in preparation for tomorrow's flight to Hawaii. It's true that the last "vacation" was more work than relaxation, but it seems like we've really been on the go with hardly a moment to get used to being home. Hopefully, a true vacation in Hawaii will address that built-up stress.

We decided to stay in the camper at Champoeg State Park tonight and on the night of our return because our flights are leaving early in the morning and returning late at night. In fact, I'm in the camper right now and we're all working on getting to sleep in preparation for tomorrow morning's flight.

So, how do you park a car (or truck and camper, in this case) for free when you fly out of Portland? I figured a way:

The "new" (to me) truck needs a tune up and oil change, so I arranged to have the tune up at a repair shop in Portland. The shop is a little backed up, so the owner was pleased that I could drop it off and pick it up next week... that way he can get to it when it's convenient for his workload. The trick is that this shop is just a few blocks from a light rail (MAX Red Line - Airport) station. So, we'll drop off the truck in the morning, walk a few blocks to the station and be in the airport for $3.40 in under 15 minutes. Plus, my chore of getting the truck serviced will be taken care of for about the price that parking or a hotel fly-and-park deal would have cost.

Sometimes, my brilliance in the name of cheapness astonishes me.

Wish us "Aloha"... the next report will be from sunny Hawaii!

The remaining day of our trip, spent mostly in Bend, was practically without event, compared to the rest of the trip so far.

After staying overnight at Tumalo State Park, near Bend, we enjoyed two museums before
returning through Eugene and home.

Our stop at the High Desert Museum was surprisingly interesting. I don't usually get a great kick out of these nature and history museums, but this one had some great historic displays and recreations... plus a Bobcat and Lynx and other animals that Anne Marie thought were cute.

After that, we visited Bend's Old Mill District, which is quite a fancy shopping area, underscoring Bend's grown and gentrification. After lunch, we visited the Working Wonders Children's Museum, which is really more of a learning/play place than a museum, but well organized and obviously loved by many local families.

Arriving home, I feel a great sense of accomplishment for having our new truck and camper where it belongs, and having enough experience with it to know that it's going to work out great for us.

Our original plan had called for reaching Bend on our first night out of Boise, but the extended effort shopping to equip the camper and the brief (90 minute) visit with Anne Marie's relatives got us started late out of Boise. However, Anne Marie had remembered that there were hot springs near Burns (about half way to Bend) and we managed to cross the huge mountains to get there and found the Crane Hot Springs just before bedtime. This was our first night staying in the camper, and it went really well.
The next morning, Lauren and I enjoyed the 104 degree pond and had several pictures taken of us by a news photographer doing a story on the hot springs. When we later rented a private hot springs tub for all 3 of us to enjoy, the photographer knocked to ask if he could take a picture of us in the tub. Uh... I don't know what he was going for, but I had to tell him, "I don't think so". We had gotten the private tub for a bit of privacy after all!

Next, we decided to see if we could see some Kiger Mustangs in the BLM land set aside for them. Anne Marie was very curious about the horses and the BLM described a viewpoint that may be less than an hour from the hot springs. After a short drive on the highway, then a 25 mile ride on a gravel road, we found the 11 mile dirt road to the viewpoint. The first 2 miles were a rutted dirt road, then we got to the muddy, mutted dirt road, then our left, rear tire got stuck in the mud. We were lucky to be able to get back from that point. I can only imagine being stuck in the middle of BLM land, on a road that no one passes and with no cell phone service. Hopefully, anyone else hoping to see the mustangs at this viewpoint will read this and decide against it. The vista above is a shot of the land where we were traveling when we almost got ourselves stuck.
After that experience, and on the way back to the highway to Bend, we did get to see some animals. In fact, as Lauren was ironically listening to Sandra Boynton's song "Cows" on her CD player, she looked up and said, "Speaking of cows, there are some"...

Indeed. It was at least 100 cows led by two cowboys down the highway. Evidently, in Eastern Oregon, this is how they get the cows from one pasture to another. The cows were moving quite slowly, and the cowboy motioned us to move right on through, nearly pushing cows out of our way. For a few minutes, our camper was surrounded on every side by cows and by cursing cowboys. The cowboys were so adept at letting loose a string of obscenities at the cows that I have now switched from the expression "curse like a sailor" to "curse like a cowboy". It appeared they had come quite a ways, since there were cow droppings in the road for the next 15 or 20 miles.

We did actually make it into Bend in the evening and enjoyed a nice meal at Pine Tavern, which is awfully fancy, but we figured we deserved it after missing the Kiger Mustangs and instead seeing hundreds of cows and their droppings.